Artemis Sunshine

@BarelyTrying92 @cosmorxn To be fair, American wealth isn't necessarily debt if that house is paid off. Albeit, converting it into liquid funds in retirement does involve either a reverse mortgage or outright sale. Arguably, Americans increasingly have more of their wealth in financial assets as well.

@cosmorxn Stupid take. Most of American wealth is tied to debt (housing) and retirement plans that will draw down once the person retire. European do not need to accumulate money the way Americans do because they are already covered by the taxes they pay.

I’m seeing this sentiment quite a bit, but I think it fundamentally misunderstands how people perceive wealth in the 21st century. Much of America’s wealth is effectively invisible. The country can lose billions through waste, inefficiency, or corruption and barely notice the impact (the Somali Minnesota daycare scandal is one example). Wealth is reflected less in visible infrastructure and more in things like high salaries, retirement security, and access to the world’s most advanced healthcare. Football fans aren’t necessarily going to be impressed by those things because they are difficult to see. Most Europeans have little idea how wealthy Americans actually are. Walking around New York, for example, they are likely to see cities that feel familiar in many ways: older buildings, historic neighbourhoods, and dense urban environments similar to European ones, albeit with more skyscrapers. Even the huge stadiums, while visually impressive, may strike some visitors as more extravagant than evidence of everyday prosperity. They are also going to use subways full of graffiti, crazy people, rats, and fare dodgers. A useful comparison is China. Someone visiting a Chinese city might come away thinking China is exceptionally wealthy because of its infrastructure: the modern airports, high-speed rail, and newly built urban areas (pictured). But they would be drawing conclusions from what is most visible rather than from the underlying reality. China remains significantly poorer than the United States on a per capita basis. In both cases, the average person is misled by what they see.

@vtchakarova To be fair, Dalio comes across as having declared China to be the final winner of history. Or at least a version of the "end of history" that will be a part of this generation's future.

Ray Dalio turned from China dove to China hawk in less than ten years. What times to be alive!

@alto1756 @CdnInst4HistEd "Canada" was a French colony within New France. It was claimed by France in 1534 during the first voyage of Jacques Cartier in the name of the French king. The colony remained a French territory until 1763, then it became a British colony known as "Province of Quebec"

@CdnInst4HistEd Canada was a colony of New-France. It existed before 1812.

Did Canada exist because America failed to conquer it? On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain. What followed would become one of the most consequential—and often misunderstood—conflicts in North American history. At the time, there was no Canada. There were British colonies stretching from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, populated by English-speaking settlers, French Canadians, Indigenous nations, recent immigrants, and Loyalists who had fled the American Revolution. Many American leaders believed these colonies could be easily absorbed into the United States. Former President Thomas Jefferson famously predicted that the conquest of Canada would be "a mere matter of marching." It was not. Over the next two years, American invasions were repeatedly repelled by a coalition of British regulars, Canadian militia, French Canadian volunteers, and Indigenous allies led by figures such as Tecumseh. The war ended in 1814 without territorial changes. Yet its political consequences were profound. For Americans, the conflict became a story of national survival and independence from Britain. For the people living north of the border, it became something different: a shared memory of resisting annexation and remaining outside the American republic. Historians continue to debate whether the War of 1812 "created" Canada. Confederation was still more than fifty years away. But the war helped foster a sense that the colonies of British North America had a distinct future—one that would develop separately from the United States. In that sense, modern Canada may owe part of its existence not simply to British victory, but to an American failure. #TodayInHistory #WarOf1812 #CanadianHistory #HistoryMatters #OnThisDay #CIHE

@GeoffRuss3 To be fair, if you really drill down to it, the most commonly eaten food, irrespective of culture, is probably some form of rice or pasta dish.

I'm curious to know what the most frequently eaten meals in Canada are, compared to what people list as their favourite. For instance, Tony Blair's government declared tikka masala as the UK's "national dish", even though simple roasts are far more common on dinner tables. Much of modern multicultural dogma is calculated and top-down, not the other way around.

Each dot is in this image not a star. It's an entire galaxy. containing hundreds of billions of stars each.

@araseb_ To be fair, questionable if current AI has truly achieved the threshold of artificial intelligence as yet. Perhaps current AI should be thought of as 'augmented' (with humans in the loop) intelligence first. The artificial part can come afterwards if 'agentic' AI consolidates.

What's coming after artificial intelligence?

A man photographed the Sun every day for three years from the same spot and at the same time. He then combined all the images to reveal the Sun’s movement across the sky throughout the year.

The library is not a reward for children who already love reading. It is a resource for children who haven't found their reason to love it yet. The child who wanders the shelves without knowing what they want is not wasting time. They are looking. The library that lets them look without pressure is doing its most important work. Browsing is not aimless. It is how readers are made.

@StatisticUrban To be fair, there are significant distortion effects within economic figures representing populations that are below a certain size. ie. small city states that cannot generate apples-to-apples comparisons. It would be like taking Manhattan's economy on its own.

Is there a country more populous than you that is also richer than you? Using GDP, at PPP, per capita, only seven countries can answer "no." - Lichtenstein, the world's wealthiest country ($195.4k GDP per capita) - Singapore ($173.7k) - Switzerland ($105.7k) - Taiwan ($98.1k) - United States ($94.4k) - China ($31.6k) - India ($12.8k)

@Molson_Hart To be fair, the system incentives everyone to shoot for the moon and become rich so they live really well. when a medical/legal professional is able to charge $5M for a procedure/case, that's a huge lift to GDP too! Where else can the American Dream be achieved at this scale?

What happens when Americans realize that GDP is fake? That the US has the lowest life expectancy in the developed world? That driving everywhere is high stress and a miserable way to live? I get that this is an "opinion" article, but they edit those unless you're Barack Obama or something, and they're sponsoring it. They're just spreading ignorance. Europe is not poorer than the United States. It certainly has its problems, especially for those who are ambitious, but man...Europe is nice.

@Cazzy To be fair, the American population is significantly larger and more diverse socioeconomically. The American system is designed to accommodate much greater variation in delivery and in outcomes: ie. (Much) higher highs but also lower lows.

Did you know Canadian universities are considered harder than American ones? Our classes are more detailed and intensive? Even our Grade 11 and 12 curriculum is like first-year uni for Americans? Anyone have any insight into this?

@TdLeaker To be fair, whatever happened to those "Freedom 55" commercials that always ran on the telly?

@MPelletierCIO @globeandmail To be fair, this seems like a common subscription model used by online giants: free-mium use at first (for many years even) then a paid model once user lock-in is achieved.

Finally, some decent reporting. Well done @globeandmail It was pretty clear early on that the U.S. would never agree to extend the USMCA in the upcoming review process, even with a few adjustments here and there. And it was a given that the U.S. could always file notice of withdrawal. The question is where do we go from here, even if the agreement continues in some way through the mandated review process? It means that there will be ugly battles with the Trump team over this period, not about renewing or modernizing the USMCA, but about the entrance fee each country is prepared to pay for continuing access to the American market. And from what the President has said previously, that fee will include tariffs on Canadian autos, steel, aluminum, copper, softwood lumber and other goods. And maybe other entrance fees as well, like Canada giving way on regulating online streaming and other things. ....one thing is clear – the nature of the game has shifted. We are no longer playing in the North American free-trade arena but horse-trading for entry into the U.S. tent.

@EclecticMedal @MPelletierCIO To be fair, there was no NAFTA (which added Mexico into a continental trade deal in 1994) but Canada industrialised mainly via bilateral tariff-free sectoral access to the American market - the Canada US Auto Pact in the 1960s for example certainly juiced post-war growth

I will lay this out one last time for Canadians. The USMCA does not lock anyone in until 2036 Any member (including the U.S.) can exit unilaterally with six months’ notice under Article 34.6 The 2026 review and 2036 timeline ONLY matter if countries choose to stay in the deal. Exit is a separate and immediate option. Therefore, Trump can easily kill the trilateral USMCA and negotiate bilaterals from a position of strength with nothing in its place during the gap. As President he has the right to trigger Article 34.6: six months written notice and the US is out. No automatic deal stays alive, and America drops back to WTO rules, higher tariffs, no special access with Canada and Mexico until new bilateral deals are signed. The "annual review until 2036 crowd" is completely missing the point. Withdrawal is the real fast exit that skips it completely. Trump used the same threat to turn NAFTA into USMCA before. He can certainly do it again. Canada and Mexico would feel the heat right away: messed up supply chains, lost market access, and the threat of fresh US tariffs. Talks could drag on for months or years, but the US keeps the leverage the whole time.

@valdombre To be fair, Canada/America's "gains" from NAFTA (then USMCA) were imbalanced and largely benefited Mexico. While Canada cannot say it publicly, the return to nothing and then resurrecting bilateral deals probably won't make policymakers unhappy if they are able to read the winds.

Trump says he is not looking to renew USMCA. This is an opportunity for Canada to gain independence, be a friend of the US instead of a colony, and restore the old east-west economy our forefathers built. No need to panic. From 1867-1988 we had no free trade deal with USA.

@polanskydj To be fair, it's a form of self-sabotage borne out of an inferiority syndrome. It manifests in many ways, one of which is a visceral dislike of being a "tall poppy" country and potentially ending up "not being good enough" still. Best to keep it grounded than finding out for real

I genuinely do not understand the jaundiced view that certain Canadians have toward their own strategic resources. Occasionally you see this sort of thing in professional sports, in which a team's management misuses their best player, and it never ends well.

@univrsle To be fair, "internal" partisanship defines Canada as it requires that many existentially opposed groups band together as "one nation". And most of these groups (ie. separatists, communists, climate-activists) benefit from a Canada that "fails" in one way or another.

I have a lot of resentment for people amplifying the issues for their own self-interest.....and 99% of it is driven by political interests and fuelled by social media disinformation campaigns.......would be surprised if foreign malign actors have jumped into the act

This non-debate debate...kinda drives me nuts. The economy is what it is, and we know there's a lot of uncertainty driving it. But the partisan impulse to make it a 'recession' or doomsday is like cutting our noses off to spite our faces and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy

@dhasbrouck29 @Graham_Mark_E To be fair, perhaps it may end up joining the European Union instead of the American Union. The world's "first post-nation state" experiment certainly helped to accelerate conditions for evolving the country's "confederation" into either/or.

@dhasbrouck29 @Graham_Mark_E A healthy and distinct Canadian "nation" could only sustainably exist long-term within the American Union itself. On its own, it lacks the "desire" necessary to be a large sovereign nation-state. It arguably muddles on in a "sovereignty-lite" association with the USA even today.

The Canadian right seeks approval from the U.S. Republican right, and the Canadian left seeks approval from the U.S. Democrat left. Only we classic Tories despise both equally.

@Ben_oharabyrne To be fair, there's nothing irrational in Team America (which includes all those folks) fighting to get first and best dibs on strategic trade with China. And the more of the pie Canada gets, the less America gets. This is a competition, and there are no participation trophies.

Interesting - so the entire time his underlings, proxies and assorted sycophants went after Canada for trying to get a break on canola exports and thaw the relationship with Beijing as some grand act of betrayal, Trump was forging “constructive strategic stability” with China